natural peanut butter

When a purchased food becomes such a habit that I can’t fathom a day without this item, it’s usually when I decide to make something like it at home. This winter, it’s been cookies… boxes, and boxes of cookies. All kinds of cookies. Chewy, grainy, nutty ones; flat, crispy sugary ones. It’s an awful way to start off the new year, I suppose.

It’s a simple conceit: peanut butter and jelly, America’s favorite sandwich combination, in America’s favorite dessert, pie. You could approach this in many ways, and one other person at the pie contest that I baked this for actually did, layering a peanut butter mousse with concord grape mousse in a thin crust. But the way I went about it was more in keeping with pie tradition than pb&j: I made a fresh fruit filling, and instead of just butter in … Read More

Two winters ago, I bought myself an ice cream maker. It cost $50. It has a bowl that needs to stay in the freezer overnight before attempting to use it (trust me, I’ve tried without), and it has a plastic insert that churns the cream into ice cream when the electric motor rotates the bowl around and around. It’s a simple machine, and it’s pretty cheap. And I honestly don’t know why everyone who likes ice cream doesn’t get one!